Illini Football 2021

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#1      

Dan

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Roster | Schedule | Tickets

Sat, Aug 28____Nebraska_______12:00pm FOX
Sat, Sept 4____UTSA___________6:30pm BTN
Sat, Sept 11___at Virginia____10:00am ACC
Fri, Sept 17___Maryland_______8:00pm FS1
Sat, Sept 25___at Purdue______
Sat, Oct 2_____Charlotte______
Sat, Oct 9_____Wisconsin______2:30/3:00pm
Sat, Oct 16____---bye---
Sat, Oct 23____at Penn State__11:00am
Sat, Oct 30____Rutgers________
Sat, Nov 6_____at Minnesota___
Sat, Nov 13____---bye---
Sat, Nov 20____at Iowa________
Sat, Nov 27____Northwestern___


All times CT
 
#2      
I will be at the Nb game. Can't wait to see the new Illini. My son is coming with me. On Friday what time would be good to eat Papa Dels before it gets busy. Haven't been to Papa since picking up my brother from UI after he graduated. Took him to Decatur where he went to pitch for the Camaillo, Ca. Kings. They came in to play against ADM in Decatur. My brother pitched fast pitch for the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. This was back in the early 1980's. So I want to take my son to the pizza place. Sorry to drone on. Can't wait.
 
#3      

altenberger22

South Carolina
Also attending the Season Opening victory against the Huskers with my brother. Expecting 54,000+ in the stands --- with 68% wearing orange and blue. We got tickets on the 45 yard line so we'll have a great view of the 4 Illini touchdowns in both end zones.

31 Fighting Bielemas
23 Corn Huskers

Illini should be "receiving votes" in the following week's AP Top 25.
 
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#4      
22 my brother passed away several years ago and can't ask him about where they played. Maybe someone on the board played fast pitch at UI at the time. I think there will be a sell out and will be in the section of 107. Go ILLINI
 
#5      
Only 58 more days until kickoff against the Cornhuskers.

What is safe to assume:

Our offense will be driven by the run game. The pass game will need to be vertical based to clear out the LOS. With our plethora of athletic TEs, that shouldn't be an issue running posts (attacking the middle of the field), smash (deep sideline), and flood (over, middle, under to one side of the field) concepts.

Defensively, Lovie is no longer running the show, so in game adjustments are likely. The scheme we would like to run is to heavily disguise where pressure is coming from and play pressman on the backend with corners walked up into WR's faces. Unfortunately, we don't have the athletes yet to run the press portion of man coverage, but man coverage is what we will be running primarily with safety help over the top.

Biggest questions:

Offense
Do we have the WRs to create separation and space on the outside? Beason (can he stay healthy?) and Williams are plus athletes, but can they be difference makers at new positions?
Peters in Year 9, will it come together for a full season or will the reigns be handed to someone else?

Defense
Can the DL create a pass rush? This will be necessary to give our athletically challenged secondary a fighting chance.
Is there enough depth across the whole unit?
Will there be a major learning curve with a much more aggressive scheme? When Beckman took over (that's where the problem started to begin with) there were communication breakdowns and confusion everywhere. Personally, I have a lot more faith in this staff.

Super Seniors
Will having 21 Super Seniors make a major impact in the wins column? In theory, implementation of the offensive and defensive playbooks should go smoother for experienced players. In practice, that will be on the coaches. Our experience could steal us a win or two. Hopefully those can come earlier than later and build some good momentum for the season and the Bielema era.
 
#6      
With 21 Super Seniors will make a difference. It isn't like Lovie's first year where he played the most freshmen. We are a very old team with that many Super Seniors. They have a whole lot of experience. Freshmen are like deer in the headlights. This will be an interesting year. Hope we get some good recruits for 22 of depth we will definitely need.
 
#7      

mhuml32

Cincinnati, OH
PFF put out their all-conference projections. Here are their Illinois choices for B1G (they listed one player for 1st team, 2nd team, 3rd team, and honorable mention):

Chase Brown (honorable mention)
Daniel Barker (third team)
Doug Kramer (second team)
Jake Hansen (third team)
Blake Hayes (second team)
 
#13      
No good place to put this, but I thought it was pretty cool. Saw a quote from Matt Campbell of Iowa St. regarding why he hasn’t left for another job. “I didn’t get into this profession to be somebody, I got into this profession to do something.”
gee how things would have turned out different if we had hired him and NOT the other clown from Toledo
 
#16      
We would have been panned at the time hiring a non P5 coordinator as our HC. I have every single belief that we wanted Cambpell, and thought we could bring him here as OC AHC.
I do not disagree . nfw that we would have hired him directly for HC .

I was just doing a lil wondering
 
#17      

Dan

Admin
#25      

mhuml32

Cincinnati, OH
Feel free to argue the percentages but for a dose of reality / fear of losing to a much lesser known program: ESPN's FPI ratings is giving Illinois a 58% chance to beating UTSA this year.
 
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